In a radiologic screening procedure, such as screening mammography, true abnormalities such as cancers are believed to occur at a typical rate of about three to four cases per one thousand patient examinations. Apparently any misdiagnosis of the radiologist can have drastic consequences for the patient. However when a large number of cases is screened it is unavoidable that the radiologist's attention decreases over time.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,917,929 shows a user interface for a computer aided diagnosis (CAD) system. The CAD system serves as an electronic reminder or second reader to assist radiologists in obtaining higher detection rates or higher sensitivity for abnormalities. In addition the CAD system assists radiologists in reducing the misdiagnosis rate, or lowering the false negative rate. However, the usage of a CAD system and a user-friendly interface does not address the problem of lapse of the attention of the radiologist, which decreases due to fatigue or other reasons.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,987,345 discloses a method and system for displaying of medical images. The system displays an image along with corresponding ones of the same image with computer-aided diagnostic information added. The CAD computer output is used as a second opinion prior to the final decisions of the radiologist. Again the problem of a decreasing attention of the radiologist is not addressed here.